Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself...

The last 18 or so hours of my life have been humerous (in hind-sight). Here's the rundown:

Yesterday was a typical crazy day at work. I was running around, finalizing financial statements all day and finally got to take a breath at about 4:45 p.m. My plan was to do a basal test overnight last night. Per the instruction in Pumping Insulin, I figured I'd eat dinner at 5 p.m., so I'd have a solid 5 hours between my dinner bolus and bedtime. So, on my drive to pick up my husband, I downed a PB&J sandwich on whole wheat. I bolused for 57 carbs, after calculating the carbs the night before (I even used a tablespoon to measure the jelly!) I had a haircut at 6 p.m. Came home and enviously witnessed my husband watching the NLCS game while drinking Sierra Nevada Pale Ale's (MY favorite!) Tried to hide my resentment at him enjoy the beers while I was fasting for my basal test.

I tested my blood at 7:30 p.m. and was met with 213 mg/dl. NO!! So, I did a small correction (had IOB already). At 9 p.m. I was 195 mg/dl. Frustrated, I did another correction. Went to bed at 9:15 p.m. Woke up at 2 a.m. with my blood sugar at 48 mg/dl. Nice. Basal test out the window at this point. Rather than have my typical O.J. for a low, since I was starving, I dug into the peanut butter and chocolate chips with two glasses of non-fat milk. (I like peanut butter, can you tell?!) I set an extended bolus for my obvious overcorrection for the low. Got back into bed... can't sleep. I've had this happen before, when my body starts digesting all that protein and fat, it doesn't sleep. WHY, OH WHY didn't I just have some juice?!? Lay awake for over two hours. Annoyed at my husband from breathing, or touching me, or doing anything!

My blood sugar stayed in the low 200s throughout the rest of the night, regardless of my repeated corrections. Woke up at 230 mg/dl and corrected. (Finally was 119 mg/dl by 8:45).

Got dressed in a hurry this morning in order to get to work early so I can leave at 4 p.m. to work on my thesis. (Yes, I have WAY too much on my plate right now!) I'm tired and hungry and VERY irritable. My very helpful husband got up early to move furniture because we're having the carpets cleaned today.

As I'm leaving, weighed down with all my bags, my husband calls to me "Can you move your books real quick?" I have books for my thesis stacked all over the living room.

I sighed, "Babe, I'm exhausted, can't you move them?"

He replies, "You know what order they're in."

I snap, "They're not in any ORDER!" while I start stacking them on the kitchen table.

As I finish moving the books, my husband enters the living room, "How am I going to move the table since it's covered with books? Can you put them on the couch?"

"Fine!" I start tossing the books on the couch. While my husband moves the table into the kitchen.

"Bye!" I yell as I pick up my bags to leave.

Wait, the table is now blocking the front door. I struggle to edge the table ever so slightly so I can squeeze out the door. Not working.

I drop all my bags and yell, "Damnit Dennis, the table is blocking the door!"

He comes out and yells back, "Don't yell at me! Just move it!"

So I shove the table back, grab my bags and march out the door. I can hear my husband muttering, "You better not have broken a leg of the table!"

An hour later I called my husband and sheepishly apologized for being so irritable. I also reminded him that I NEED him to help me if I'm going to work full time, write a thesis, be a wife, get my diabetes in perfect control for our upcoming pregnancy, etc. He's totally on board.

The reason this is so funny is that it's completely atypical for us. I'm pretty easy going, and my husband even more so. We don't really fight or even have many disagreements. Wow, was I in a mood this morning.

I was so frustrated with the pump. I'd tried hard to do what I was supposed to in testing my basal rate, and it totally blew up in my face. Obviously I didn't bolus enough for the sandwich and then made a poor choice in correcting the low... but man! So frustrating.

I think I'm going to test my nighttime basal by trying to eat an earlier dinner, so that my dinner bolus is pretty much out of my system by 10 p.m. Eating as early as 5 p.m., however, doesn't seem like the best way to test, since it's not at all my habit. Wouldn't it be better to see how my basal works on a typical night?

Ironically, my overnight blood sugars Monday night were superb! I was 113 mg/dl at bedtime, had 4 oz of milk and woke up at 6:30 a.m. with my blood sugar at 98 mg/dl.

Maybe I didn't need to test my basal rate at all!